Oil production industries are consistently forced to deal with water challenges that result from drilling processes. During a drilling process, an oil/water mixture is pumped from the ground, which is referred to as production water or wastewater. The wastewater coming from the ground could be 95% water and 5% oil by volume. The wastewater may also include traces of heavy metals and other contaminants. Before the wastewater can be safely disposed of or reused, the contaminants need to be removed. Thus, oil companies have the challenge of removing contaminants and safely disposing of the wastewater. Other companies in other industries face similar problems of having to safely dispose of wastewater.
One common way of treating wastewater is through a reverse osmosis filtering process. Unfortunately, the reverse osmosis filtering process is expensive and can be relatively slow especially when the oil content in the wastewater is high. Another common way of treating the wastewater is through a distillation process. Again, the distillation process is expensive and time consuming. Yet another way of treating the wastewater is through a chemical processes. The chemical processes are again expensive, and further processes are needed to return the wastewater to a safe level.
Thus, there is a need in the art for improved filtering systems so that wastewater can be safely and reliably processed.